Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING. Manuscript received May 25, 2013; final manuscript received November 13, 2013; published online December 19, 2013. Assoc. Editor: Santiago Silvestre.

Abstract

This work presents a novel light harvesting policy for a black counter electrode (BCE) to enhance the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which uses a metal-based light scattering layer (MLSL) that is formed from Al@SiO2 core-shell microflakes prepared and coated on BCE. DSSCs based on BCE with and without the MLSL are compared as well. Analysis results of electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) indicate that, while not affecting the charge transfer resistance at BCE, MLSL exhibits a low electron transport resistance in the TiO2/electrolyte interface. Our results further demonstrate that MLSL reflects light to the TiO2 electrode, subsequently increasing photocurrent density by 68.68% (from 2.65 to 4.47 mA/cm2) and improving the power conversion efficiency by 49.64%.

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